MUTE - What the heck did I do???

MUTE - What the heck did I do???

Last night I grabbed my ATT remote and somehow pushed a combination of buttons that muted my STB. I had the remote set up to control the volume of my TV and I could not recreate what I did to un-mute the STB. I had to return to the factory settings to be able to un-mute it.

What the heck did I do so I can prevent it / correct it in the future?

Re: MUTE - What the heck did I do???

JiminSTLouis - It is not anything you did. It is the "customer unfriendly" design of the IR signal selected for U-verse. Looks like you know how to un-mute.

There have not been many posts lately about the mute problem. It has been appearing for me lately as a channel change caused by the corruption of the FF. Then there's all the channel numbers that do not register.

*The views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.

Re: MUTE - What the heck did I do???

No Jim it was a glitch of the Uverse remote, I've had it 5 or 6 times in my almost 4 years of Uverse. The fix is below:

To control the speaker volume of the motorola box itself:

1) Press and hold the AT&T button on the remote2) Press the "OK" button and release it and the AT&T key at the same time. All the universal lights will flash twice.3) Type 955. The AT&T key will flash twice4) Press "Enter"

Now you can turn your motorola box all the way up (off mute). Once you get it set how you want, we need to set the remote back to control the TV volume instead of the motorola box. To do that:1) Press and hold the AT&T button on the remote2) Press the "OK" button and release it and the AT&T key at the same time. All the universal lights will flash twice.3) Type 955. The AT&T key will flash twice4) Press "TV". The TV light will flash twice

All of this is assuming that the TV button on your remote is already programmed to control your TV.

If it is not, you will need to find the code for your TV and program the TV button first.

Please NO SD stretch-o-vision or 480 SD HD ChannelsNeed Help? 1-800-288-2020, After he gets acct info, press # a bunch of times, get a menu from Mr. Voice recognitionYour Results May Vary, In My Humble OpinionI Call It Like I See It, Simply a U-verse user, nothing more

Re: MUTE - What the heck did I do???

Just had it again today and used my fix above.

Chris

Please NO SD stretch-o-vision or 480 SD HD ChannelsNeed Help? 1-800-288-2020, After he gets acct info, press # a bunch of times, get a menu from Mr. Voice recognitionYour Results May Vary, In My Humble OpinionI Call It Like I See It, Simply a U-verse user, nothing more

Re: MUTE - What the heck did I do???

When the remote comes from att it is setup to mute the box. A technician gave me an extra remote when I asked him why this was happening. Thank god for him because I was going nuts.

I keep an extra remote in my cabinet. When the mute glitch occurs I get up an grab the remote and hit mute and it fixes it everytime.

No, you have to use my instructions above, the mute button on the remote just works the TV, you have to unlink it to get rid of the DVR/STB mute.

Chris

Please NO SD stretch-o-vision or 480 SD HD ChannelsNeed Help? 1-800-288-2020, After he gets acct info, press # a bunch of times, get a menu from Mr. Voice recognitionYour Results May Vary, In My Humble OpinionI Call It Like I See It, Simply a U-verse user, nothing more

*The views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.

Re: MUTE - What the heck did I do???

Hey Skeeter - Consider yourself lucky. It has been there all these years. And, like so many things two things that appear at opposites are both correct.A new remote, that is not programmed for a TV controls the STB sound. So, it can un-mute the STB.A remote programmed for a TV must be reprogrammed to control STB sound & then programmed back to TV. One of the complexities of the remote design.

The real answer is to prevent the phantom mute from occurring. This is possible with some tape -IR Issues

Going back 5-6 years there are many posts about IR interference. Remedies included taping over the IR sensor, hiding the STB, turning off auto brightness on the TV.

A common fault was the info button press corrupting to an STB mute action. The number of reports of this have totally fallen away. My personal initial primary problem was getting the zero to register. But, one day long ago that just went away.

Niles Audio Corp. makes IR repeaters & has a video on their web site showing the fragility of the IR coding that is used for U-verse & other boxes. They said their new line of repeaters could handle it. Oddly, a U-verse customer posted in this community that they had a NIles install that was not working & after they contacted Niles they did not get any satisfactory resolution.

I came to believe that the IR sensor is too sensitive, That the DVR is worse than other STBs. That command type buttons are worse than the number buttons. That, somehow software updates can make it better or worse, So, it is a moving target. Hard to pin down.

I noticed that the U-verse remote does work better than my Logitech Harmony model 700. I looked at the IR signal through a digital camera. It appeared to me that the Harmony IR signal is stronger than the U-verse remote. This reinforces my theory that the IR sensor is too sensitive.

Recently, my most common problem was FF and Play Buttons often corrupted to chan up and chan down more than six times a night while watching recorded shows, exclusively.

This tape has a degree of transparency. I thought I would use it to cover the IR sensor. The remote has never worked better. In over 20 evenings since I applied the tape - watching recordings while FF through the ads - I have not had one chan up - chan down corruption . Previously, there would have been at least 6x20=120 occurrences.

Almost all button presses are accepted & none are changed to a different action.

RF Issues

It should not be a surprise, but it is, that half the problems with the RF remote are IR. I run an STB well hidden for a second TV. I had the IR sensor covered with black tape. I replaced the black tape with the "duct tape" & saw an immediate improvement in response to menu buttons. The number buttons were already good - see below for that solution.

The STB using RF must be hidden due to the dongle conversion of RF to IR. If it is not hidden it is subject to the following problems:

IR corruption - Ironically, the RF remote was often offered as a resolution for IR problems. But, if the STB is not hidden nothing has changed to eliminate theI IR corruption problem. If the corrupting light can be seen by the STB IR sensor it will continue to corrupt the IR signal.

If the STB IR sensor can see IR from another remote, it will respond to it.

If another STB can see the IR generated by the dongle, it will respond to it.

Note that hidden means the IR does not see outside light - If you have an optical repeater it is IR subject to corruption. If you have an IR receiver that produces RF to go through a wall, it is still IR subject to corruption. Only if the remote is RF (like the point anywhere remote) transmitted to a hidden device will it ward off IR corruption.

Previously, I found the RF remote lacking in RF power - in the same room, twelve feet away, hidden only by a thin sheet of cardboard. One method to increase RF power is to hold the remote under your chin while pressing a button - using your head as an antenna.

With this antenna, the channel numbers are almost always accepted. With the "duct tape" in place, the other buttons work almost every time. The remote now works better than ever.

STB Issues

Once IR and RF issues are resolved, there are timing issues with the STB to contend with. Numbers process fast and Menu items process slow. You need quick, light touch on some numbers to avoid duplicates and a slow, strong press on menu activities. Effort is required to suppress the urge to press again while waiting for a response. It takes concentration to get effective results. Frequently a second press immediately cancels a slow responding first press. Current IR and RF issues amplify the effect of the timing issue.

*The views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.

Re: MUTE - What the heck did I do???

bowler4424 - I agree that what you posted does work.

It is one of many variations to toggle the STB mute. You are lucky to have an extra U-verse remote to use.

Which reminds me of the way I did for a while - I used the remote that the down volume failed. It is still in the cabinet (with the battery removed). That was replaced by a Logitech Harmony 700, which does the job with a few logical, easily remembered button presses.

If it should happen on my point anywhere remote I would be stuck because at&t does not support STB volume/mute on the remote apps. I will have to decide - which is easier - reprogram the point anywhere remote or expose the IR receiver on the STB.

*The views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.

Re: MUTE - What the heck did I do???

Thanks for the tip! This happens twice a month on two boxes now and the only solution I had was to go through troubleshoot and resolve or reset the box: a big waste of time and a pain in the backside. This is so much easier!